Top Stories

Police: Violent crime slightly down in Beaumont

Statistics released by the Beaumont Police Department show overall violent crime in the city is down from last year.

Police Chief Jim Singletary is proud of the results, but says the police department can do more.

“People try to explain the violence, and I don’t think anybody knows for sure why,” he said.

In 2011, 292 businesses were burglarized. In 2012, that number rose to 315. Home burglaries, however, decreased by 240.

“Some of these stats show we’re actually clearing a lot of these violent crimes, robberies and even the burglaries,” Chief Singletary said.

Robberies, however, increased. Nearly 75 more people were robbed this year.

Two more murders were also committed in 2012. One is still unsolved.

“It’s a fact that our citizens need to be more aware of what’s going on around them,” Chief Singletary said.

He said the police department is increasing the number of programs they have with different homeowner associations to stop crime throughout the city.

“If we can get the citizens to believe that we’re committed to helping them and they’re our top priority, they’ll be more confident in listening to us and coming to us and reporting crimes too,” he said.